


Heavier Things Remain

by galfridian



Category: Haven - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Troubles, F/M, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-05
Updated: 2014-09-05
Packaged: 2018-02-16 04:49:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2256468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/galfridian/pseuds/galfridian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Careful of that girl," Garland Wuornos used to warn them. "Trouble follows Audrey Parker."</p><p>Garland wasn't wrong, but maybe that's why Duke fell in love with her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heavier Things Remain

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the AU meme circling Tumblr, prompt #40: exes meeting again after years of not speaking.

When Audrey returns to Haven, it's like she's a different person. A light fog is rolling in from the ocean, making the evening light glow, when she comes into the Grey Gull.

He wants to hug her – the urge is impossibly strong, even after all the years without a word between them – but he grips the bar tight, staying firmly rooted behind it.

She smiles, and his heart twists, and she says, "Is the apartment still empty?"

He slips her the key, their fingers brushing. After she's gone, he realizes: It's her eyes. All the years he's known Audrey, her eyes have had a haunted look; now, it's gone.

 

 

 

 _"Careful of that girl," Garland Wuornos used to warn them. His hand would fall to Nathan's shoulder, an unforgiving grip tethering his son to him. "Trouble follows Audrey Parker."_  

_Garland wasn't wrong, but maybe that's why Duke fell in love with her._

 

 

 

Duke half-hopes she'll come back down to the bar, half-terrified of what he'll say if she does, but she doesn't. 

After he closes, he finds her sitting on the stairs to the apartment. Without the counter separating them, the distance between them looks, for a moment, like a great chasm he can't cross.

Then she reaches out her hand. He takes it, pulling her into a hug. "I'm sorry about Dave," he says. "Do – uh – do you need help with the arrangements?"

Audrey smiles. This time, his heart is prepared; it doesn't twist, just aches for her. "That'd be nice, Duke."

 

 

 

_Haven was a little seaside town; everyone knew everyone's story._

_Trouble first found Audrey in 1983: A serial kidnapper fell in love with a serial killer. Together, they killed Audrey's parents and stole her._

_When the FBI finally caught the couple, they found Audrey in a barn. Two years old, asleep on a haystack._

_Dave Teagues, Audrey's last living relative, adopted her that summer._

 

 

 

Two days later, they bury Dave. Most of Haven is there, although few people knew him well. He kept to himself, mostly, and focused on raising Audrey. 

She holds up well, all throughout the funeral and the wake, but Duke notices the light in her eyes begins to wane.

 

 

 

_Duke and Nathan were five when Audrey came to Haven. Nathan overheard scraps of her tragedy eavesdropping on his father's calls, then passed the story on to Duke._

_"She'll be alright," Garland promised the day he introduced Nathan and Duke to Audrey. "She probably won't remember what happened."_  

_But when Duke looked at Audrey, her blue eyes were dark and stormy, and he knew she wouldn't forget._

_(And she didn't. Haven wouldn't let her. Whispers followed her for years, until she forced Dave to tell her why. She was eight.)_

 

 

  

"Why didn't you call?" Audrey asks a few nights later. They're sitting on the _Cape Rouge_ , underneath the stars, like they used to.

"I didn't know I could," Duke tells her. "I thought – Audrey, you left me."

"No," she says. "I left this place."

 

 

 

_When Duke was fifteen, he researched the kidnapping. One article noted that the couple had bite and scratch marks when they were arrested. They had Audrey for twelve days. She fought her kidnappers every single one of them._

 

 

 

There's a storm coming in.

Duke watches the clouds gather over the ocean, thick and dark. A promise of something about to break.

"Duke?" Audrey's standing at the top of the stairs. "Come inside."

She waits for him at the doorway – captures his hands, then his mouth – and pulls him inside as the first roll of thunder crashes.

 

 

 

 

_Duke left Haven at eighteen. For six years, he just scraped by. Moved from place to place, found work where he could._

_Then his father died, left the Grey Gull to him._

_When he arrived, Audrey Parker was waiting for him._

 

  

 

"Your eyes," he says, after.

"My eyes?"

"They were brighter when you got here, but they're starting to look dark again."

She stares, disbelieving. "You noticed that?"

"All our lives," he says. 

"I think it's Haven," she confesses. "I know it sounds weird, but it's like...it's like the weight of what happened to my parents is heavier here." 

"I'm sorry," Duke says.

"Don't be. You were always the best thing about Haven."

"But?" 

"I can't stay."

"Then," he says, pressing a kiss to the crook of her neck. "Let's go."

 

 

 

_Audrey was a force of nature. Being with her was like – well, it reminded him of living on the ocean:_

_Mostly, it was amazing and freeing, too. It was like she'd been waiting for him, like she'd known they were headed for this._  

_It reminded him of the way she used to look at him, back when they were kids, like there was a secret between them. He just didn't know what the secret was until she kissed him._

_But sometimes, Audrey – like the ocean – was terrifying. She reminded him he was mortal – breakable – because some days, she seemed as immortal as the sea._  

_Then she left, like a tide rolling away. For months after, Duke felt her presence, like he sometimes felt the lull of the ocean when he was on dry land._

 

 

 

When the sun rises over the _Cape Rouge_ , Haven is a speck in the distance.

The storm has broken.


End file.
